8. Other parts of speech; word formation; syntax
8.1. Indeclinable words
See Andersen (1998a), 447–448.
8.1.1. Adverbs
Adverbs are often formed to the neuter accusative singular of adjectives.
- malo adv. ‘a bit’ < malŭ adj. ‘little’
- mŭnogo adv. ‘much, many’ < mŭnogŭ adj. ‘much, many’
Adverbs can also be formed from the neuter locative singular of adjectives.
- dobrě adv. ‘well’ to dobrŭ adj. ‘good’
- zŭlě adv. ‘badly’ to zŭlŭ adj. ‘bad’
Other fossilised case forms of adjectives and nouns are used.
- noštĭjǫ adv. ‘during the night’, instr.sg of noštĭ f i-stem ‘night’
8.1.2. Prepositions
Some prepositions in Slavic are inherited from PIE:
- vŭ(n) prep. + acc, loc ‘in(to)’, which must continue PIE *h₁n̥
- sŭ(n) prep. + instr, gen ‘with, (out) from’ which partly continues PIE *som, also in Ved. sám preverb, prep. ‘together with’, cf. PIE *sem- ‘one’; partly PIE *k̑om, also in Lat. cum, com prep. ‘with’
Some prepositions are case forms of adjectives or nouns:
- meždu prep. + instr ‘between’, gen–loc of mežda f ‘border, boundary’
Some are derived from other prepositions:
- na prep. + acc, loc ‘on(to)’ vs. nadŭ prep. + acc, instr ‘over, above’
8.2. Notes on word formation
The standard work is Vaillant (1974); cf. also Matasović (2014); Birnbaum & Schaeken (1997: 17–115).
o- and ah₂-stems from verbs (with o- or lengthened grade in the root) can designate actions (nomina actionis), results (nomina rei rectae), places (nomina loci) and agents (nomina agentis) – this process continues to be productive in the modern languages.
Many types of compounds are found – the older types are formed without derivational suffixes, e.g. voj-e-vod-a ‘warrior, general’, but more recent types are formed with a suffix, e.g. rǫko-vod-ĭn-ik-ŭ ‘guide’.
8.3. Notes on syntax
The standard treatments of historical Slavic syntax are Vaillant (1977); Večerka (1989–2003).
8.3.1. Use of cases
In Slavic there is a strong tendency to use the genitive form instead of the accusative with animate objects in the paradigms where the nominative and accusative have merged. This tendency is already observable in the oldest OCS manuscripts.
| Petr‑ŭ | vidi‑tŭ | Simon‑a |
|---|---|---|
| Peter-nom.sg | see-prs.3sg | Simon-acc–gen.sg |
| ‘Peter sees Simon’ | ||
The original use of the accusative is also found, but it is rare.
| Petr‑ŭ | vidi‑tŭ | Simon‑ŭ |
|---|---|---|
| Peter-nom.sg | see-prs.3sg | Simon-acc.sg |
| ‘Peter sees Simon’ | ||
The animateness hierarchy is primarily based on the features Personal and Mature (Huntley 1993: 137): proper personal > common personal > gospodĭ ‘lord’ > rabŭ ‘slave’ > synŭ ‘(mature) son’ > anǵelŭ ‘angel’ > animals > synŭ ‘(infant) son’ > běsŭ ‘demon’ > infants > duxŭ ‘spirit’ > inanimates.
“Polarity questions” (“yes or no?”) contain a li that follows the constituent that stands in focus.
| Ty | li | je‑si | car‑ĭ | ijuděisk‑ŭ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You:nom.sg | q | be-prs.2sg | king-nom.sg | Judeian-nom.sg |
| ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ | ||||
The negation ne is proclitic; if a sentence contains a negated pronoun or adverb, the predicate is often negated in OCS and very often in the modern Slavic languages.
- ne jęsomŭ ničesože “we did not catch anything”
In existential sentences the partitive or the negated subject stands in the genitive.
- ne bě ima čęda lit. “There was no child’s for them”, i.e. “They had no children”
Locatives with prepositions are not common in OCS, but they are used productively in Old East Slavic.
- OESl. Samŭ že Izäslavŭ kŭnäzĭ pravljaaše stolŭ … Kyjevě “Prince Izäslavŭ sat himself on the throne in Kyiv” where Kyjevě is a prepositionless locative.
In older Slavic the genitive had a number of functions that later became expressed in other ways – some of these functions appear to be inherited from the old ablative.
- complement for verbs that express perception (e.g. slušati ‘hear’)
- achievement or striving toward (e.g. iskati ‘look for, seek’, žĭdati ‘wait for’)
- separation (e.g. otŭlǫčiti ‘separate’, běžati ‘flee from’, bojati sę ‘be afraid’)
- partitive or negated object (see above)
Genitives are also used for the direct object of the supine – that probably reflects that the supine was originally a nominal form.
- pride … viděti groba “he came to see the grave” where groba stands in the genitive
The instrumental expresses means, time, place, manner, comparison and quality; in addition it is used with nominal predicates.
- děvojǫ bo bě Eüa “Since Eve was a virgin” where děvojǫ stands in the instrumental
8.3.2. Word order
The word order is relatively free in early and modern Slavic. It expresses the information structure of the utterance: constituents come from left to right in agreement with rising rhematicity, i.e. new information comes from the position of the last thing in the sentence, cf. English the name of the student was André, where André is the new information.
8.3.3. Subordination
Subordinate clauses can be expressed with the assistance of a conjunction and a finite clause or by with the assistance of nominalized clauses (e.g. participles). The rich system of particples suggests that Common Slavic preferred nominalized clauses.
- se estŭ tělo moje dajemoje za vy “This is my body, which is given to you”
When the subject in the main clause is not the same as the subject in the subordinate clause, a dative absolute is used.
- mŭnogu sǫštu narodu i ne imǫštemŭ česo ěsti … Isusŭ glagola “When the crowd of people was large, and they didn’t have anything to eat … Jesus said”, where mŭnogu sǫštu narodu i ne imǫštemŭ is the dative absolute